He probably meant "spammers" but he's the type of person who calls people on DT "devs", as in "plz dev I have did nothing wrong, plz plz.....remove fdback"--you know what I'm talking about.  The type of person who doesn't even know enough English to solve captchas.

I kind of agree with that, even though earning merits isn't a personal concern of mine since I can't rank up any more than I have.  I've often debated in my head whether I should apply to be one, but then I foresee myself pulling my hair out like Jet Cash trying to find posts that are any good.  Frankly, I'm comfortable not venturing outside of Meta & Reputation much, and I can't imagine it'd be any fun reading through garbage in Economics or other related sections where the shitposters congregate like bedbugs.

It's supposed to be harder for people to rank up now, but it shouldn't be an impossible task--the merit system wasn't designed to erect that much of a barrier.  More sources would definitely alleviate some of the anguish, but people like OP ought to realize that they're just shitposters and don't deserve merit at all.  They want something for nothing.